Margano by a nose in PTHA President’s Cup

Margano won an extremely tight photo finish in the $200,000 Pennsylvania Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association President’s Cup on Saturday at Parx Racing.

Margano did not have the best of trips. He stalked the pacesetting Our Emerald Forest early but was shuffled back from between horses when the odds-on Winning Cause bid for the lead three wide nearing the far turn of the 1 1/8-mile turf race. Jockey Kendrick Carmouche angled Margano to the outside nearing the stretch, and the horse re-rallied three wide.

Winning Cause began to drop back in upper stretch, and that left Margano, on the inside, and Holiday Star, who lodged his bid four wide into the stretch, to fight it out. The pair hit the wire together, with Carmouche and Margano earning a nose victory over Holiday Star and Eriluis Vaz.

Margano, owned by the Lael Stable of Roy and Gretchen Jackson and trained by Arnaud Delacour, paid $17 to win. He was timed over yielding turf in 1:52.19. After taking blinkers off Margano for one race, Delacour put them back on for the President’s Cup.

It was 3 1/4 lengths back from Holiday Star to Winning Cause, the 2-5 favorite in the five-horse field. Winning Cause had $68,928 of the $74,850 in the show pool bet on him.